Beijing's Palace Museum (the Forbidden City) hopes to build a 30,000-square-metre underground exhibition hall to display its ancient treasures.

The Palace Museum, with a collection of millions of treasures in the imperial palaces of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, opened to the public in 1925 - 14 years after the collapse of China's last feudal dynasty.

It was given State cultural-heritage protection in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded.

The museum was listed as a world cultural heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1987.

Tourists who come to the palace are often impressed by the magnificent buildings, the glowing yellow roofs against vermillion walls, as well as painted ridges and carved beams.

However, the sombre light of the current exhibition hall has prevented the tourists from appreciating the treasures as much as they would like, complained a museum staff member surnamed Chen.

Only a small part of the huge collection has been displayed at the Palace Museum, while most items have to be stored in an underground storehouse due to the limited space in the current exhibition halls.

Experts said the construction of a separate exhibition hall for the treasures would be an effective way of solving problems such as the lack of space and poor exhibition conditions. The new hall will probably be built underground.

Chen said further discussions and assessments will decide on the specific plan.

More than a million exhibits of ancient treasures are expected to be displayed in the new exhibition hall.

( China Daily February 9, 2002)